Play
Playas a noun means ‘a piece of dramatic writing for the theatre or radio or television’:
The students performeda playby Shakespeare and sang some folk songs.
Radioplaysare always much better than TV plays – you can use your imagination more.
We useplayas a verb when we talk about individual roles in a dramatic production, but we say that someoneactsin aplay(noun):
WhoplayedHamlet?
Not:Who acted Hamlet?
McBrideactedin over 40plays.
Not:McBride played over 40 plays.
We useplayas a verb to talk about doing sports, music and other leisure activities. We usually don’t use an article (a/an,the) when we talk about sport or leisure activities. We usually use an article when we talk about musical instruments:
Iplayedrugby as a child; we neverplayedsoccer.
Can youplaythe piano?
I’ve neverplayedpoker. Have you?
We usually don’t use an article (a/an,the) when we talk about sport or leisure activities. We usually use an article when we talk about musical instruments.
See also:
A/anandthe
Game
Gameis a noun.We use it to talk about sports or other entertaining activities:
Would you like agameof tennis?(orWould you liketo playtennis?)
Not:Would you like a play of tennis?
The children invent some fantasticgamesto occupy themselves.